On the rise: Lifts as per the Machinery Directive

Wolfgang Adldinger1)

This article deals with the EU Machinery Directive – 2006/42/EC. As its name implies, the Machinery Directive is
applicable to all kinds of machines and, as such, covers a broader scope than the Lifts Directive.

Kategorie: Issue 5/2013

Erstellt von: editor
The Machinery Directive (2006/42/EC) amended the Lifts Directive (95/16/EC) primarily in regard to its range of
applicability (Article 24). This modification provided clarification as to which directive is applicable for passenger lifts
traveling at speeds of v ≤ 0.15 m/s. This distinction in the regulations and demographic change in society have lent new
momentum to the elevator industry. This initiated an entirely new market for lifts operating at low speeds, ascending only
a few stories, of an identical safety level – in private residences, smaller office buildings, administrative buildings, hotels,
and many more.

1 Demographic developments

In the period between 1980 and 2002, average life expectancy in Germany rose from 69.9 to 75.6 years among men and
from 76.7 to 81.3 years for women. Globally, life expectancy has risen at a constant rate – about 2.3 years per decade –
the past 160 years. There is no indication that this will change in the near future. Viewed in combination with the fact that
the birth rate has been declining for years now, the average age in the European Union will have risen by ten years by
the year 2050. Whereas about 20 % are more than 60 years of age at the present, UN figures show that this will be
34.5 % in 2050. A large share of these seniors will want to stay in familiar surroundings, remaining in their own homes
instead of moving to senior citizens’ housing or assisted living facilities.

A conglomerate of project partners, promoted by the European Commission and including the CEN and the ELA, drafted
the guideline entitled Build for All [1] with the objective of achieving barrier-free accessibility. This document was
presented for public discussion in 2006 and is in the meantime available in various languages (English, French, German,
Italian, Polish and Spanish).

Persons suffering from handicaps, older people and people whose mobility is temporarily restricted account for about
40% of Europe’s population. This circle of individuals accounts for a significant share of the population but has not been
properly considered in the past. Barrier-free accessibility to buildings is intended to ensure safe and efficient use of the
building. Thus no building with more than a single floor should be constructed without including a lift.
Various studies and their conclusions are supposed to spark public awareness and give impetus to the technical world,
encouraging it to work out new guidelines and standards governing the development of new products.

The rise in the age of the population will cause a significant increase in the market share for lifts built in accordance with
the Machinery Directive.

2 Legal background

The Lifts Directive – 95/16/EC – went into force on July 1, 1999, and from that time onward was applicable for passenger
and freight lifts in regular service in buildings and structures. The Machinery Directive – 2006/42/EC, which was
introduced on December 29, 2009, modified Article 24 of the Lifts Directive to the extent that the latter was, as of that
point in time, 
only applicable to lifts operating at v > 0.15 m/s.

These two directives are intended to guarantee that users and maintenance personnel can use the lift safely. In addition,
it is also necessary to ensure that freight cannot be damaged. To achieve this, the ele-vator industry demanded that a
new safety standard be developed, since the EN 81-41 standard did not cover all the factors involved when engineering
a lift of this type in accordance with the Machinery Directive. There are, however, distinct distinctions between the Lifts
Directive (95/16/EC) and the Machinery Directive (2006/42/EC) in regard to commissioning, marketing and safety
evaluations (risk appraisal).

The Lifts Directive is better adapted to the specifics of an lifts than is the Machinery Directive which, as the name says, is
applicable to all moving machines. If, for example, elevators as per the Machinery Directive convey persons and the fall
distance exceeds 3 meters, then this is a so-called “Annex IV Machine” (type approval test). It may be marketed with the
collaboration of a notified body as per the Machinery Directive.

3 Safety level

If these standards are adhered to in their entirety, then it may be assumed that the applicable directives have also been
satisfied (see table 2 and table 3) (presumption of conformity).
4 Safety inspections

Almost 700,000 lifts are in place in Germany and of these about 250,000 were not inspected in the year 2011. The
number of inspections falls continuously, while the number of elevators exhibiting deficiencies rises.

Lifts have to be inspected both as working equipment and as equipment requiring special surveillance (two distinct sets
of rules apply here). Required here are the initial inspection, recurring inspections, inspections after modifications and
repairs, and inspections following extraordinary events. As a rule, the inspections for working equipment are carried out
by a qualified person and those for systems requiring special surveillance are conducted by an authorized inspection
agency.

Introducing the Ordinance on Industrial Safety and Health brought about a significant change in how lifts were dealt with.
If these are systems that require special surveillance, then the operator bears responsibility. The operator must
determine the inspection intervals, doing so by way of a safety evaluation (risk assessment). In regard to working
equipment, this determination can also be made within the course of a risk assessment. This safety evaluation makes it
possible to determine the degree of hazard to which users and maintenance and inspection personal are exposed.
Where applicable, measures for compliance with the state of the art may be derived.

Since the operator bears responsibility, work on such systems should be carried out only by competent ser-vice
companies and not (as is currently the case) in part by “private” operators.

The construction regulations, given in Table 5, are applicable in recurring inspections.

5 Accidents

The inspection organizations have observed – in recent years and in both private and public buildings – that more and
more lifts are being marketed that are built as per the Machinery Directive. It is assumed that a disproportionate share of
such systems has not been registered.
Experience shows that systems like this, built according to the Machinery Directive, do not exhibit the same safety
technology level as those complying with the Lifts Directive. As was mentioned above, these systems are often installed
by “private” operators and thus cannot be made equivalent to normal elevators.

In principle, lifts as per the Machinery Directive should be no less safe than units engineered in accordance with the Lifts
Directive. In actual fact, however, elevators complying with the Machinery Directive are turning up in the accident
statistics ever more frequently. In some cases these are quite serious accidents, which one would not expect for lifts
designed as per the Lifts Directive.
[2]
Example: April 25, 2011, in Pfelling (Straubing) 

Two ladies, aged 79 and 71, fell with a homemade lift and, as a consequence, suffered serious injuries. The late
husband of the older woman had attached this outdoor lift to their single-family home years before. This comprised a
platform measuring 1.5 square meters. It was fitted with a railing and was driven by an electric motor and steel rope. The
79-year-old, using her wheeled walker and accompanied by her friend, 71 years of age, had boarded the lift, intending to
travel to the upper floor. At a height of about two meters, the steel rope parted; the platform fell. Both women incurred
severe injuries in the fall.

In summary:
Many accidents could be prevented if lifts were built according to the Machinery Directive. Thus during commissioning,
marketing and the safety evaluation (risk assessment), the same requirements should apply as for “normal elevators”.

6 Equipment as per 
the Machinery Directive, 2006/42/EC

6.1 Alternate lifting gear

Falling under the purview of the Machinery Directive (2006/42/EC) are, as previously mentioned, not only elevators but
also other types of lifting gear.

a) Underfloor platform lift (see Fig. 3)

b) Laboratory lifts/Dumbwaiters 
(see Fig. 4)

c) Pallet lift (see Fig. 5)

d) Platform lifts (see Fig. 6, 7 and 8)

e) Special-purpose lifts (see Fig. 9)

f) Stairlift (see Fig. 10 and 11)

Figure 8:
6.2 Creating a lift as per the Machinery Directive at the Wittur Group

At Wittur, safety was always in the foreground when developing a so-called “lift as per the Machinery Directive”. A lift was
developed which is very similar to an elevator complying with the Lifts Directive:

► With a rated speed of v ≤ 0.15 m/s

► Using certified safety components exclusively

► With a fully enclosed car

► With automatic, energy-efficient car door

► With a deadman circuit

► Which can be used simultaneously by a person in a wheelchair
and a second, standing person

Since there was no harmonized standard, Wittur’s HHL W Line was based on the Machinery Directive (2006/42/EC), the
Lifts Directive (95/16/EC), and the standards mentioned below.

The topics of ecology and energy savings were consistently observed during the development and enginee-ring of the
HHL W Line. The car was designed using modern FEM analyses to optimize materials thicknesses and thus to reduce
raw material consumption. The Wittur ECO door drives used here consume an average of just 11 W when opening or
closing.

The Wittur maxim “Excellence in Solutions” affected the HHL W Line in regard to three essential items:

► Machine-room-less lift system

► Nominal rated load (number of passengers): 250 kg (3)/315 kg (4)/
385 kg (5)

► Rated speed: max. 0.15 m/s

► Enclosed car or lift platform

► EC type approval with certification by the TÜV in accordance with the Machinery Directive (2006/42/EC)

7 Summary

Lifts engineered to the Machinery Directive are certainly on the advance, since the market for transporta-tion means
facilitating access to residential buildings, resulting from the mandate to achieve barrier-free access, exists. This market
will continue to grow in coming years due to the demographic change in society.

At the German and European levels (e.g. VDMA, VFA, ELA, CEN), attention is being turned to this subject. Currently
being discussed is the development of a new, autonomous standard for low-moving lifts (in the past SSL = Slow Speed
Lift, today LSPE = Low Speed Passenger Elevator).

Trends indicate that these so-called “LSPEs” are used primarily in private homes, in smaller office and ad-ministrative
buildings, and in hotels. The reason for this is that the number of older people and those with limited mobility will rise
significantly in coming years. A rated speed of 0.15 m/s and the ability to cover two to three stories is, as a rule, sufficient
for this type of lift. In these lifts, greater attention is paid to accessibility, use and control, and the amount of space
required. The LSPEs should be similar to a standard lift in every respect, which is why automatic car doors and a fully
enclosed car are required. Intelligent electronics make the LSPEs ecologically benign and energy efficient. The most
important point, however, is the safety of the users and the maintenance personnel. In order to ensure this, it is
necessary to outfit these lifts with all the relevant, certified safety equipment to guarantee that they can be installed in all
types of buildings.

This is the reason why the lift as per the Machinery Directive is on the advance and will most certainly conquer its sector
of the market!
Annex
[1] Published by the Build for All project partners, Info-Handicap, Luxembourg (www.build-for-all.net)
[2] Published in Wochenblatt, newspaper for the Straubing region (www.wochenblatt.de)
Figure 1: Population pyramids (Wittur documentation)
Figure 2: Digest of harmonized standards, Wittur (www.wittur.com)
Figure 3: Underfloor platform lift, Lerch
Aufzüge AG (www.lerch-aufzuege.ch)
Figure 4: Labor-Boy/Dinner-Boy/Combi-Boy, avanti Liftsysteme (www.avanti-liftsysteme.de)
Figure 5: Cargo-Master, avanti Liftsysteme (www.avanti-liftsysteme.de)
Figure 6: Lift platform, series BLM-LP, Lift-Reith GmbH & Co. KG (www.lift-reith.de)
Figure 7: Teorema/Herkules lift platform, Högg Liftsysteme (www.hoegglift.de)
Figure 8: Verralift LE/LH/LM/LS, Verralift (www.haacon.de/de/lifte/verralift-lh.html)
Figure 9: Hydrostar, Lift-Reith GmbH & Co. KG (www.lift-reith.de)
Figure 10: Minivator, Lift-Reith GmbH & Co. KG (www.lift-reith.de)
Figure 11: Stairlift, model M950, Süd Lift (www.suedlift.de)
Figure 12: Creation of the HHL W Line, Wittur (www.wittur.com)
Figure 13: HHL W Line, Wittur (www.wittur.com)
Figure 14: Certification for the HHL W Line and Appendix, Wittur (www.wittur.com)
Figure 15: Application range for LSPEs (Low Speed Passenger Elevator), (www.ela-aisbl.org)
Table 1: Distinctions between Lifts Directive and Machinery Directive, TÜV Nord (www.tuev-nord.de)
Table 2: Digest of the harmonized standards as per the Lifts Directive
Table 3: Digest of the harmonized standards as per the Machinery Directive
Table 4: Elevator inspections, Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau (www.vdma.org)
Table 5: Allocation of the types of elevators and the installation regulations /
maximum inspection intervals, Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau (www.vdma.org)

Lecture delivered on the occasion of the Heilbronn Lift Conference, 2013

1) WITTUR Deutschland Holding GmbH, 
85259 Wiedenzhausen